Facing pages open to a gold-illuminated Qur'an heading

Two facing pages open in matching symmetry, their broad margins filled with a dense gold arabesque of scrolling blossoms on deep blue ground. At the centre of each page a rectangular panel edged in pink ruling holds an oval cartouche of black script above five short lines of black naskh, each line set off by small gold roundels. The pages meet at a plain paper gutter, their edges bordered by a continuous scalloped band of blue, red-tipped points.

Calligraphy is the most honoured of the Islamic arts, because it carries the text of the Qur'an. From the angular Kufic of the earliest manuscripts to the rounded naskh, muhaqqaq and thuluth scripts codified by Ibn Muqla and Ibn al-Bawwab, and the hanging nasta'liq of Persia, calligraphers and illuminators produced Qur'an pages, album leaves and carpet-page frontispieces of extraordinary refinement, often on gold-flecked or richly bordered paper. Leaves of this kind are held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the British Library, the Chester Beatty Library and the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts in Istanbul.

Printed as a museum-grade giclée on Hahnemühle fine art paper using 12-ink archival pigment printing. Available handframed in FSC-certified wood with optional float glass, or unframed. Ships worldwide with free delivery to 30+ countries.